jaster2

"Geeze, students are students, just like they always have been." Well, no. These students are working. They are either teaching classes or doing research work as an assistant to a prof. Forming a union gives grad assistants a means to grieve unfair conditions, negotiate pay and benefits, etc. Having belonged to such a union at another state university, it was a major benefit to have backing when we needed it. Many grad students actually have families and are dependent on surviving on this work. It sounds like Richardville either doesn't understand what a grad assistant position is or is deliberately diminishing its significance. I'm sure if he looked at how expensive it would be to hire non-students to do all that work, he would understand that the state gets a hell of a bargain.

Nice try "sticking to your free-market principals." How many choices do we have for cable-connected internet? How is that a free market? Net neutrality is about protecting consumers from companies like Comcast controlling access/speed to content on the internet. It requires regulation to protect consumers. This is the partisan hack-boy you all voted in.

Good topic. Agree that more information is needed. For instance, no mention of the millions of dollars cut from the GVSU budget over the past 5 years. Disagree with others here that higher education is a drain on public resources and/or not helpful to improving opportunities in the state.

Too bad. It would have been outstanding had such a comprehensive studio come together. However, it didn't quite smell right from the start. I wonder if the plan all along was just to pocket the incentive (which they never got because the state wouldn't accept their bogus filing) and leave anyone who signed on in the lurch. The Hanger42 people were all over town talking big to convince local production shops to move into their studio. I doubt they ever got anyone on board. But a lot of people were actually considering it because who wouldn't want to be right there where all these big studio projects were supposedly coming? This is classic L.A. hype-a-loney and I'm glad no one bit on it. Now, for all you haters out there, give it a rest. Let's welcome legit business and get to work.

The industry is really pushing digital editions of their textbooks. Unfortunately this has nothing to do with keeping prices down and everything to do with higher profit margins. Most digital editions are essentially a rental. After a year the book "expires." You can't sell it back or lend it to a friend. The price for these is not substantially cheaper than a hard copy. I think their business model may not work out in the end because students and faculty are really tired of this business practice.

Prediction: 4 years from now that biz college will be up on that property and Devries will have happily pocketed a fat profit selling the parcel. The beef is over the building already on the property. Devries claims it adds value to the price and GVSU sees it as an old worthless warehouse that won't easily accommodate their building plans. Everybody's going to shake hands in arbitration once Devries tries to stop stiffing GVSU (and us). If he really wanted to build apartments there he would done it already.

It's good for folks to know details behind incentives deals. Growing the film industry in Michigan has potential but without the incentives, productions will not come. I've walked through the entire Hangar42 facility and they seem to be about halfway through what needs to be done to achieve their grand plans. It's quite a risk they're taking because they need to attract business to get the thing up and running but they need to do that before the facility is completely done. If they can land a couple major productions they will likely get this thing up and running. I hope they do because film production brings spending in from out of state and is also great PR for GR and Mich.

Interesting argument about reducing and/or consolidation. However, if these university programs are consistently enrolled to capacity, how does reducing the number of programs/institutions benefit the state? To provide enough capacity to serve all these students, you would need to build more space and provide more resources at the remaining institutions. That wouldn't save much in the end.

Wondering about that too. It would be helpful to include something in this article to understand the numbers better. I'm guessing the City saves money on insurance carried for each of these individuals performing a dangerous job. There may be other expenses like that which aren't obvious.

A step forward for Michigan. This has happened in other states I've lived in and it was certainly weird at first. Businesses adjusted. People adjusted. Nobody thinks about it anymore. It's a good thing.

I commend the GR Press for taking a forward-looking position on this topic. Michigan has a lot of wind turbine potential. Our state has made a smart choice in requiring more renewable energy. The previous poster raises questions about cost comparisons because a more comprehensive cost analysis of these projects wasn't included. I don't agree with his opinion but adding a link to the editorial would be helpful for the public to seek more information about these proposals.